


A Visit to Ordinary

by LittleWritingRabbit



Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Brief mention of suicide (that being Nell), Canon Timeline, F/F, More of a character sketch than a story really..., Siblings Being Supportive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 11:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleWritingRabbit/pseuds/LittleWritingRabbit
Summary: Trish Park, always the confidant of others, needs someone to talk to on her way to crash a funeral. Her sister Crystal might very well be the right someone.





	A Visit to Ordinary

“Anyone home?” Trish called from the front steps, pushing on the door. It swung open slowly. _If this was a horror movie_ , she thought, _this would be when the ghosts all retreat to the shadows, waiting for me to get close enough to catch in their gnarled claws_. Perhaps she’d been thinking a bit too much about ghosts lately.

There was no way this could be a horror movie though. The sun was shining too brightly, the tulips were growing too cheerfully in the garden, and the house smelled too much like cookies. Unlike some people Trish knew, her sister Crystal was just too… suburban to be caught up in anything even slightly mysterious. 

Crystal worked at a marketing company, at a desk. She came home to a two-storey house and a husband who ran a restaurant, and they watched TV together and slept in a very large, very comfortable-looking bed with too many decorative pillows. When Trish thought about her own job as a mechanic, little apartment decorated with vintage movie posters, and various tattoos, she could see why Crystal was their parents’ favourite child. 

She took her shoes off and made her way down the hallway, past a side-table with a tasteful scented candle and a framed picture from Crystal’s wedding, and took the liberty of adjusting the canvas of a painted landscape on the wall that was hanging crooked. 

“Trish?” said a voice from the kitchen, “Is that you?”

“Yeah,” Trish called back, “Am I early?” 

“Not at all, come in!” 

Trish walked into the kitchen to find her sister up to her elbows in cookie dough smiling welcomingly. The part of the table that wasn’t occupied by baking supplies was covered in Crystal’s paperwork, but Trish still pulled up a chair.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said.

“Not at all,” said Crystal. “Sam is still asleep upstairs - he stayed late at the restaurant last night - so it’s just me here today.”

“Well it’s good to see you,” said Trish, and she meant it. “I wish I could get out here more often.”

“Well you know I’m always happy when you can,” said Crystal. “And - can I be honest for a sec?”

“Yeah sure.”

“You look a bit stressed,” Crystal looked sympathetic. “Are they keeping you too long at the shop still?”

“Well, maybe a bit, but that’s just fixing things, it’s not anything crazy.” She looked down at her hands, folded over a marketing report or something similar, and smiled slightly. “It’s just… I’ve got a girlfriend.”

Crystal’s face lit up. “Really? Oh that’s awesome Trish! Come here you-” she skirted the table and pressed Trish into a hug, careful to keep the cookie batter away from her hair. At that moment, the oven beeped and she had to rush over to rescue the cookies. Once they were cooling atop the stove, she leaned forward against the table with a contemplative look. “But you said having a girlfriend is stressing you out?”

“Not exactly,” said Trish, “I mean, Theo herself is amazing. She’s got a phD, and she wears these long gloves like some sort of noir femme fatale, and _my god_ , she can dance. But she’s got some…” how was she going to phrase this? _She’s got some problems with what I like to call her superpower_? _She’s got a sister who died, and the obituary wasn’t super specific but based on what I’ve heard it was probably suicide_? _She’s got some problems trusting people, and honestly I can’t blame her_? “She’s got some family drama,” said Trish. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Crystal, “That’s always the worst kind of drama because it’s so close to home. I hope it’ll be okay for you guys.”

“Me too,” said Trish. “It’s actually because her sister… passed away, uh, pretty recently. So that brought up some old hurts, I think.”

“Aw man, that’s-” as if on cue, Crystal seemed to notice her sister’s choice of clothing. “Trish… are you going to her sister’s funeral?”

“…I am, yeah.”

“Does she know?”

Trish didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure what to say. She had reasoned that if Theo had trusted her enough to tell her what happened when she touched people, or how she currently couldn’t feel a thing at all, she would probably trust her enough to come to the funeral but… for some reason she hadn’t asked. 

“She’s got a lot of metaphorical walls,” Trish said, finally. 

“Metaphorical walls?” she could see that Crystal was trying to understand, which was encouraging. 

“She builds them up to keep herself safe, I mean, I don’t know the whole story, but I think her childhood was sort of rough, so her M.O. is complete independence to avoid relying on anyone else which, okay fine, I see where that’s coming from, but she doesn’t let anyone in, and then she has no one at all to help her, or be comforting, and a person can’t just keep being stoic and full of whiskey forever, and… she didn’t tell me about her sister. I read it in the paper. So… that’s... a thing, I guess.” Trish smiled, or maybe grimaced. “Sorry… that’s probably a lot all at once.”

“Well better you say it than keep it bottled up I guess,” said Crystal, who was now no longer paying any attention to the cookies. “Do you know what you’re going to do about all that?”

“I don’t really know,” said Trish, “I guess all I can do is… be there. You can’t really chase someone like Theo. You can’t… I dunno, pull up a metaphorical siege tower to the metaphorical walls and say ‘let me in!’ That would only make her build more. I guess the only option is to wait outside, to be there if ever she needs you, and hope that eventually she’ll build a door.”

“That makes sense, yeah,” said Crystal, “Just… remember you’re not responsible for her drama, right?”

“I know,” said Trish, “I’m going today because I want to, not because I feel like I’ve got to.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Crystal. “Do you want a cookie?” 

“That would be great,” said Trish. The cookie was still warm, and the chocolate still melty. It tasted very sweet, and completely ordinary. 

“Never a dull moment, hey?” said Crystal between bites. 

Trish almost laughed. “Nope, I don’t think I’m destined for a dull life.”

“When’s the service?” asked Crystal.

“In about half an hour,” said Trish. “I should probably head out. It was a good excuse to come see you though.”

“I’m glad you could come,” said Crystal, moving to wash the dough off her hands. “I hope everything goes ok, and… just phone me if you ever need someone to listen, ok?”

“I will,” said Trish, “And you just phone me if you ever want to talk.”

Crystal walked her to the door and gave her one last hug. “I’d say have fun, but it’s not really the event for that,” she said. “Good luck though!”

“Thanks,” said Trish, “See you around!”

She got into her car and fastened her seatbelt. Her sister’s house, tulips included, faded away in her rear-view mirror. _Well_ , she thought, _I’m either screwing up majorly, or doing the exact right thing_. She wasn’t sure what sort of clarity she had hoped to get from talking to Crystal, but at least it had been nice to say some of that out loud. Even if she couldn’t mention Theo’s superpowers. 

“Alright,” she muttered, pulling out onto the freeway, “Let’s go crash a funeral.”


End file.
